This second edition reads like an entirely different book. Recognizing that theory informs practice, which informs theory, it relies on the core concepts of classical and contemporary rhetoric to enhance students' understanding of effective legal analysis and persuasion.

Professor Tiscione has taken out much of the extraneous and somewhat daunting detail, retaining only that which is likely to be helpful to novice legal writers. The result is a far better balance between theory and practice in a more accessible text. Sections on law school, law as rhetoric, sources of law, binding and persuasive authority, legal research, types of reasoning, the writing process, conventional forms of predictive and persuasive writing, and oral speaking are divided into small, easy-to-assign chapters. Annotated sample documents are included throughout the book that relate to the same client issue introduced at the outset. No prior knowledge of rhetoric is necessary.